was the last and greatest of that sect. See MEDICINE, Index. Some of his works are extant, and have been published; particularly 1. In Artem Medendi Isagoge Saluberrima; Basil, 1528. 2. De Utero et Muliebri Pudendo. Græcè. Paris, 1554. 3. The Life of Hippocrates, in Greek, which has been repeatedly printed, in almost all the editions of Hippocrates's works. SORANUS, another physician, also of Ephesus, who flourished somewhat later than the preceding, and who also wrote a work, on the Diseases of Women. SORANUS, in ancient mineralogy. See GRANITE. SORBAIT (Paul), an eminent physician of the seventeenth century, born in Austrian Hainault. He became professor of medicine at Vienna, and his abilities and learning raised him to be appointed physician to the imperial court. He published, 1. Commentaries on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates; 4to., 1680. 2. Medicina Universalis, Theoretica et Practica, folio, 1701; and several other works. He died in 1691. SORBIERE (Samuel), a French writer, born of Protestant parents about 1612. His father was a tradesman; his mother Louisa was sister of the learned Samuel Petit, minister of Nismes. See PETIT. His parents dying, his uncle took care of his education, and sent him to Paris to study divinity; but he soon tired of it, and turned to physic; wherein he made such quick progress that he published an abridged system of medicine. He went to Holland in 1642, where he married in 1646; but returned to France, and was made principal of the college of Orange in 1650, and historiographer of France. In 1653, to recommend himself to the court, he abjured the Protestant religion, and turned Catholic; and in 1654 went to Paris, and published his Reasons, dedicated to cardinal Mazarine. He next went to Rome, and introduced himself to pope Alexander VII. by a Latin letter, in which he inveighed against the Protestants; but all his servile versatility procured him no patronage from either of these great prelates. He then went to England, and in 1644 published an account of his voyage thither, but so much stuffed with illi'beral falsehoods against the English, that the French court deprived him of his office of historiographer, and banished him. His book was also refuted both in Paris, and at London by Sprat, bishop of Rochester. Sorbiere had learning and abilities, but lost himself for want of integrity. He translated More's Utopia, part of Camden's Britannia, and some of Hobbes's works, into French. He died of a dropsy, April 9th, 1670. SORBONNE (Robert de), a native of the village of the same name, in France, born in 1201, who, having got education and entered into orders, became so famous for his preaching that Louis IX. appointed him his chaplain, confessor, and almoner; afterwards made him canon of Cambray, and at last of the church of Paris. Robert was not only a very learned man for the age he lived in, and wrote several works on theology, but gave birth to that seminary of learning which continued to bear his name till the revolution. He died in 1274. SORBONNE, OF SORBON, the house or college of the faculty of theology anciently established in the university of Paris. It was founded in 1252 by St. Louis, or rather by Robert de Sorbonne, who gave his own name to it. The foundation was laid in 1250; queen Blanche, in the absence of her husband, furnishing Robert with a house, which had formerly been the palace of Julian the apostate, of which some remains are still visible. Afterwards the king gave him all the houses he had in the same place in exchange for some others. The college was afterwards magnificently rebuilt by the cardinal de Richelieu. The design of this institution was to assist poor students in divinity. There were lodgings in it for thirty-six doctors, who were said to be of the society of the, Sorbonne; those admitted into it without being doctors were said to be of the hospitality of the Sorbonne. Six regent doctors formerly held lectures every day for an hour and a half each; three in the morning, and three in the afternoon. SORBONNE is also used in general for the whole faculty of theology at Paris; as the assemblies of the whole body were held in the house of the Sorbonne; and the bachelors of the other houses of the faculty, as the house of Navarre, &c., came thither to hold their sorbonnique, or act for being admitted D. D. SORBUS, service-tree, in botany, a genus of the trigynia order, and icosandria class of plants: CAL. quinquefid; the petals are five; the berry is below the flower, soft, and containing three seeds. There are three species, viz. 1. S. aucuparia, mountain ash, quicken-tree, quick-beam, or roan tree, rises with a straight upright stem and regular branching head, twenty or thirty feet high or more, covered with a smooth grayish brown bark; pinnated leaves of eight or ten pair of long, narrow, serrated folioles, and an odd one, smooth on both sides; and large umbellate clusters of white flowers at the sides and ends of the branches, succeeded by clusters of fine red berries, ripe in autumn and winter. There is a variety with yellow-striped leaves. This species grows wild in many parts of this island in mountainous places, woods, and hedgerows, often growing to the size of timber; and is admitted into most ornamental plantations for the beauty of its growth, foliage, flowers, and fruit; the latter in particular, being produced in numerous red large bunches all over the tree, exhibit a fine appearance in autumn and winter, till devoured by the birds, especially the blackbird and thrush, which are so allured by this fruit as to flock from all parts and feed on it voraciously. In the island of Jura the juice of the berries is employed as an acid for punch. It is probable that this tree was in high esteem with the Druids; for it is more abundant than any other tree in the neighbourhood of those Druidical circles of stones so common in North Britain. It is still believed by superstitious persons that a branch of this tree can defend them and their cattle from all danger! 2. S. domestica, or cultivated service-tree, with eatable fruit, grows with an upright stem, branching thirty or forty feet high or more, having a brownish bark, and the young shoots in sum mer covered with a mealy down; pinnated leaves of eight or ten pair of broadish deeply serrated lobes and an odd one, downy underneath, and large umbellate clusters of white flowers at the sides and ends of the branches, succeeded by bunches of large, fleshy, edible red fruits, of various shapes and sizes. This tree is a native of the southern warm parts of Europe, where its fruit is used at table as a dessert, and it is cultivated here in many of our gardens, both as a fruit tree and as an ornament to diversify hardy plan tations. 3. S. hybrida, or mongrel service tree of Gothland, grows twenty or thirty feet high; it has half-pinnated leaves, very downy underneath; and clusters of white flowers, succeeded by bunches of round reddish berries in autumn. SORCERER, n. s. Fr. sorcier; low Lat. SORCERESS, sortiarius. A conjuror; SOR'CEROUS, adj. enchanter: sorceress, SORCERY, n. s. the feminine: sorcerous, magical, partaking of the nature of sorcery which signifies enchantment; magic; infatuating art or effects. They say this town is full of cozenage, This witch Sycorax, Shakspeare. For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible, Was banished. Id. The weakness of the power of witches upon kings and magistrates may be ascribed to the weakness of imagination; for it is hard for a witch or a sorcerer to put on a belief that they can hurt such. Bacon's Natural History. Divers witches and sorceresses have fed upon human flesh, to aid their imaginations with high and thin vapours. Th' art ent'ring Circe's house, The snaky sorceress that sat, Bacon. Chapman. The Egyptian sorcerers contended with Moses; but the wonders which Moses wrought did so far transcend the power of magicians, as made them confess, it was the finger of God. Watts's Logic. SORCERY, or magic, is the power which some persons were formerly supposed to possess of commanding the devil and the infernal spirits by skill in charms and invocations, and of soothing them by fumigation. Sorcery is therefore to be distinguished from witchcraft; an art which was supposed to be practised, not by commanding evil spirits, but by compact with the devil. As an instance of the power of bad smells over dæmons or evil spirits, we may mention the flight of the evil spirit mentioned in Tobit into the remote parts of Egypt, produced, it is said, by the smell of the burnt liver of a fish. Lilly informs us that one Evans, having raised a spirt at the request of lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby, and forgetting a fumigation, the spirit, vexed at the disappointment, pulled him without the circle, and carried him from his house in the Minories into a field near Battersea Causeway. King James, in his Dæmonologia, has given a very full account of the art of sorcery :- Two principal things,' says he, 'cannot well in that errand be wanted: holy water (whereby the devill mockes the Papists), and some present of a living thing unto him. These things being all prepared, circles are made, triangular, quadrangular, round, double, or single, according to the forme of the apparition they crave. When the conjured spirit appears, which will not be while after many circumstances, long prayers, and much muttering and murmurings of the conjurors, if they have missed one jote of all their rites; or if any of their feete once slyd over the circle, through terror of his fearful apparition, he paies himself at that time of that due debt which they ought him, and otherwise would have delaied longer to have paied him: I mean, he carries them with him, body and soule.' How the conjurers made triangular or quadrangular circles his majesty has not informed us, nor does he seem to imagine there was any difficulty in the matter. We therefore suppose that he learned his mathematics from the same system as Dr. Sacheverell, who, in one of his sermons, made use of the following simile: They concur like parallel lines, meeting in one common centre.' Another mode of consulting spirits was by the beryl, by means of a speculator or seer; who, to have a complete sight, ought to be a pure virgin, a youth who had not known woman, or at least a person of irreproachable life and purity of manners. The method of such consultation is this: The conjurer, having repeated the necessary charms and adjurations, with the litany or invocation peculiar to the spirits or angels he wishes to call (for every one has his particular form), the seer looks into a crystal or beryl, wherein he will see the answer, represented either by types or figures; and sometimes, though very rarely, will hear the angels or spirits speak articulately. Their pronunciation is, as Lilly says, like the Irish, much in the throat. Lilly describes one of these beryls or crystals. It was, he says, as large as an orange, set in silver, with a cross at the top, and round about engraved the names of the angels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. A delineation of another is engraved in the frontispiece to Aubery's Miscellanies. The sorcerers or magicians do not always employ their art to do mischief; but, on the contrary, frequently exert it to cure diseases inflicted by witches; to discover thieves; recover stolen goods; to foretel future events, and the state of absent friends. On this account they are frequently called white witches. Our ancestors had great faith in these fables, when they enacted, by stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 8, all witchcraft and sorcery to be felony without benefit of clergy; and again, by stat. 1 Jac. I. c. 12, that all persons invoking an evil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, em ploying, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit; or taking up dead bodies from their graves to be used in any witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment; or killing or otherwise hurting any person by such infernal arts; should be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and suffer death. And if any person should attempt by sorcery to discover hidden treasure, or to restore stolen goods, or to provoke unlawful love, or to hurt any man or beast, though the same were not effected, he or she should suffer imprisonment and pillory for the first offence, and death for the second. These acts continued long in force, to the terror of all ancient females in the kingdom; and many poor wretches were sacrificed thereby to the prejudice of their neighbours and their own illusions, not a few having by some means or other confessed the incredible facts at the gallows. But all executions for this dubious crime are now abolished. It is enacted, by stat. 9 Geo. II. c. 5, that no prosecution shall for the future be carried on against any person for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment:-But the misdemeanor of persons pretending to use witchcraft, tell fortunes, or discover stolen goods, by skill in the occult sciences, is still deservedly punished with a year's impri Here's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh!-What a sigh is there! the heart is sorely overcharged. Id. He that, whilst the soreness of his late pangs of conscience remains, finds himself a little indisposed for sin, presently concludes repentance hath had its perfect work. Decay of Piety. He this and that, and each man's blow Doth eye, defend, and shift, being laid to sore. Sore hath been their fight, Daniel. Id. Denham. A sordid god; down from his hoary chin If one should cease to be generous and charitable, because another is sordid and ungrateful, it would be much in the power of vice to extinguish christian L'Estrange. virtues. Providence deters people from sluttishness and sordidness, and provokes them to cleanliness. Ray. It is strange, since the priest's office heretofore was always splendid, that it is now looked upon as a piece of religion, to make it low and sordid. South's Sermons. Sax. ran; Belgic and Danish saur. A place Stender and painful; place SORE, n. s., adj., SORELY, [& adv. SORE'NESS, n. s. excoriated; an ulcer. To be a sore, there must be an excoriation,' says Johnson; a tumor or bruise is not called a sore before some disruption happen:' sore, adjective, is tender to the touch VOL. XX. rence. Pope. you welcome to these shattered legions? My father blessed me fervently, Byron. Till I come back again. SOREL, or William Henry, a town of Lower Canada, at the confluence of the Richieu, Chambly, or Sorel River, with the St. LawIt stands on the site of a French fort, built as a defence against the incursions of the Indians, and which received its name from Sorel, a captain of engineers, who superintended its construction. The plan of it covers about 120 acres of ground, although at present the number of houses does not much exceed 150, exclusive of stores, barracks, and government buildings. The houses are of wood, substantially and well constructed, but the Protestant and the Catholic churches are both of stone. There are eight principal streets, named, like the town itself, after different branches of the royal family. Before the town, the bank of the Richlieu is from ten to twelve feet high, having near the point two small wharfs. The river is here 250 yards broad, with from two and a half to five and a half fathoms of water. On the opposite shore are convenient places for building vessels. A small distance from a little rivulet, to the southward of the place, is a blockhouse and hospital; and a little further on a good wooden building, with out-houses, gardens, &c., called the government house, serving as a residence for the commanding officer of the troops. The present town was begun about the year 1785, when some loyalists and disbanded soldiers settled at it; and it still continues to be the residence of many old military servants of the crown. Some trade is carried on, but not so much as might be supposed from its situation at the junction of two navigable rivers. Long. 72° 55′ W., lat. 46° 5' N. SOREX, the shrew, in zoology, a genus of animals belonging to the class of mammalia, and order of feræ. It has two long fore teeth in the upper jaw, which are divided into two points; in the lower jaw are two or four fore teeth, the two middle ones, in the latter case, being shorter than the others :-On each side in both.jaws are two or more tusks: the grinders are knobbed. The animals of this genus have in general thick clumsy bodies, and five toes on each of their feet; the head resembles that of the mole, being thick at the forehead, much elongated, and end ing in a conical snout, and having very small eyes; in other circumstances of general figure they resemble the murine tribe of quadrupeds. They burrow in the ground, some species living mostly about the sides of waters; and most of them feeding on worms and insects. There are sixteen species, viz. 1. S. albipes, the white footed shrew of Pennant. The tail is slender and hairy; the head and upper parts of the body are of a dusky ash color; the feet, belly, and teeth, white. 2. S. araneus, the field shrew mouse, or the fætid shrew, with short rounded ears; eyes small, and almost hid in the fur; nose long and slender, upper part the longest; head and upper part of the body of a brownish red; belly of a dirty white; length, from nose to tail, two inches and a half; tail one and a half. Inhabits Europe: lives in old walls and heaps of stones, or holes in the earth; is frequently near hay-ricks, dunghills, and necessary houses; lives on corn, insects, &c.; is often observed rooting in ordure like a hog: from its food, or the places it frequents, has a disagreeable smell; cats will kill, but not eat it: it brings four or five young at a time. The ancients believed it was injurious to cattle; an error now detected. There seems to be an annual mortality of these animals in August, numbers being then found dead in the paths. 3. i. S. arcticus, the Labradore shrew of Pennant, has the head and upper parts of the body dusky, and the sides of a brownish rust. They inhabit Labradore and Hudson's Bay. The nose is very long and slender, the upper jaw extending far beyond the lower; the eyes are small, and almost hid in the fur; the ears are short. 3. ii. S. arcticus cinereus, the gray Labradore shrew, a variety of a dusky gray color on the upper parts of the body, and yellowish white below. 4. S. Brasiliensis, the Brasilian shrew, is of a dark color, with three broad stripes along the back; is about five inches long; the tail not quite two; the scrotum is pendulous; the muzzle pointed, and the teeth are very sharp. They inhabit Brasil, and are not afraid of cats: they will even play with them. 5. S. cæruleus, the blue shrew, has a tail of a middle length; the upper parts of a pale blue; the belly lighter, with white legs and feet. It is nearly eight inches long; the tail three and a half; the nose long and slender; the upper jaw longest; the upper fore teeth short; the under long, slender, and crooked inwards; white whiskers; small eyes; ears broad, round, naked, and transparent; the fur short. It has so strong a scent of musk, that it perfumes every thing it runs over. Cats will not attack them. They inhabit Java and other East Indian islands. 6. S. exilis, the pigmy shrew, is a singular curiosity. It is the smallest quadruped hitherto known. It scarcely exceeds half a drachm, or the sixteenth part of an ounce in weight. The tail is long and very slender, then suddenly grows remarkably thick and round, and again tapers to the end. The general shape and colo resemble the araneus, but paler. These pigmies inhabit Siberia, between the Oby and the Jensei, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and their diminutive size. 7. S. fodiens, the water shrew, has a long slender nose; very minute ears; very small eyes, hid in the fur; color of the head and upper part of the body black; throat, breast, and belly, of a light ash-color; beneath the tail a triangular dusky spot; much larger than the last; length, from nose to tail, three inches and three-quarters; tail, two inches. Inhabits Europe; long since known in England; but lost till May 1768, when it was discovered in the fens near Revesley Abbey, Lincolnshire; burrows in the banks near the water; is called by the fenmen the blindmouse. 8. S. liricaudatus, the carinated shrew, has a tail taper, slender, and ridged underneath; the head and upper parts of a dusky ash-color, with a white spot behind each eye; the belly is whitish, and the fore teeth are brown. Penn. 9. S. Mexicanus, the tucan, or Mexican shrew, has a sharp nose; small round ears; without sight; two long fore teeth above and below; thick, fat, and fleshy body; short legs, so that the belly almost touches the ground; long crooked claws; tawny hair; short tail; length, from nose to tail, nine inches. Inhabits Mexico; burrows, and makes such a number of cavities hat travellers can scarcely tread with safety; if it gets out of its hole, does not know how to return, but begins to dig another; grows very fat, and is eatable; feeds on roots, kidney beans, and other seeds. M. de Buffon thinks it a mole; but it seems more properly to belong to the genus of sorex. 10. S. minutus, the minute shrew, has a head nearly as big as the body; very slender nose; broad short naked ears; whiskers reaching to the eyes; eyes small, and capable of being drawn in; hair very fine and shining; gray above, white beneath; no tail; the least of quadrupeds, according to Linnæus. Inhabits Siberia; lives in a nest made of lichens, in some moist place beneath the roots of trees; feeds on seeds, digs, runs swiftly, and has the voice of a bat. 11. S. moschatus, the musky shrew of Pallas, Schreber, Penzant, and Kerr; the Muscovy or musk rat of Ray and Buffon (see Smellie's edit. v. 260); the water rat of Clusius, Aldrovandus, and Gmelin; is the Castor moschatus, or musky beaver, of Linnæus, already described under CASTOR. 12. S. murinus, the Javan shrew, or murine shrew of Pennant, has a tail of a middle length, shorter than the body; the body dusky; the legs, feet, and tail, ash-colored. It is about the size of a common mouse, has a long slender nose, channelled underneath, with long ash-colored whiskers; ears rounded and almost naked; two sharp parallel fore teeth in each jaw; and five toes armed with claws on each foot. They inhabit the Isle of Java. 13. S. pusillus, the timid shrew, inhabits the deserts of Persia. The tail is short, and has the hair partly shed towards the sides; the ears are rounded; the body is three inches and a half long, of a dark gray above, and ash-color below. The teeth are like those of the araneus (No. 2); in other respects it resembles the Surinam species (No. 15), but is much larger. They live in holes under ground. 14. 8. quadricaudatus, square-tailed shrew of Pennant, has a tail inclined to a square form; the head and upper parts of a dusky ash-color; the belly paler, and the fore teeth brown. 15. S. Surinamensis, the Surinam shrew, has a tail scarcely half the length of the body; is chestnut-colored above, and of a pale yellowish ash-color below. In size, shape of the head and snout, teeth, eyes, and feet, it resembles the water shrew (No. 7); the ears are like those of the araneus (No. 2); the tail has very short smooth, close set hair, cinereous above, and whitish below; the muzzle is white. They inhabir Surinam 16. S. unicolor, the uniform shrew of Pennant, has a tail narrowed or compressed at the base, and the whole body of a uniform dusky ash-color. Mr. Kerr suspects this species, with the albipes (No. 1), the liricaudatus (No. 8), and the quadricaudatus, (No. 14), to be only varieties of the araneus (No. 2), though he has adopted Mr. Pennant's arrangement, in making them as distinct species. All the four was discovered by professor Herman, near Strasburg. SORIA, a province of Spain, in Old Castile, lying to the west of Navarre and Arragon, Its area is 4300 square miles, hilly almost throughout, being intersected by the Sierras or chains called respectively Ministra, Moncayo, and Paredes. Even its plains are elevated, narrow, and by no means fertile. The climate is mild in the vallies, but bleak on the hills. The products are sheep, wool and lambs, wine and fruit, and a small quantity of hemp and flax. There are also a few manufactures of woollen, linen, paper, and leather for home consumption. The Ebro flows through the north-east corner, and the Douro has its source in this high district, in which it is joined by the Tajuna and Ucero. The other rivers of the province are the Jalon, the Cidacos, and the Alamo. Population 200,000 It has several small lakes. SORIA, the chief town of the above district, is situated on the Douro, not far from its source having fifteen churches and chapels, eleven monasteries, and four hospitals. It has also a few manufactures of silk stockings, leather, soap, and woollens, with some trade in wool. It is, however, a dull and gloomy place. Near this was the site of the ancient Numantia. Inhabitants 6000. 110 miles north-east of Madrid, and forty-nine W. N. W. of Calatavud. SORITES, n. s. Gr. owparns, a heap. Ar argument where one proposition is accumulated on another. Sorites is when several middle terms are chosen to connect one another successively in several propositions, till the last proposition connects its predicate with the first subject. Thus, All men of revenge have their souls often uneasy; uneasy souls are a plague to themselves; now to be one's own plague is folly in the extreme. Watts's Logick. |